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Question 61: Is The Following Ayat In Contravention of The Infallibility of The Holy Prophet (S)?

Question: If the Prophet of Islam (S) and other Prophets (a.s.) are free from sins what does the following ayat implies when it mentions the forgiveness of their sins?

Verily We have granted you a manifest Victory: That Allah may forgive you your faults of the past and those to follow; fulfill His favor on you; and guide you on the straight Way.”1

Answer: First of all we must bear in mind that the founders of movement and revolutionaries who take steps against the prevailing trends and try reform the society and destroy the evils present in it they start facing oppositions, allegations, baseless accusations and false implications. Allegation is one of the attacks that are employed in the backward societies and its aim is to defame these personalities.

The Holy Prophet (S) was not exempted from this system. He also had to face the opposition and allegations of Quraysh. The person who was regarded truthful and trustworthy yesterday began to be called a magician, a soothsayer and heretic as soon he raised his call for religion.

The Almighty Allah has quoted the allegations of the infidels of Quraysh. It is a confirmed fact that if such allegations are not effective on most people it creates some extent doubts in the minds of some simple and ignorant persons regarding the truthfulness and claim of the Holy Prophet (S). And it can be said that a group of people continue to remain in doubts and denial for a period of time.

In those conditions how is it possible that those allegations should be explained and justified so that the truth is unveiled for the people?

The only effective method is that the Ulul Azm and progressive people who are the standard bearers of socialism and the ideal goal. If he succeeds and achieves his aim and people see the benefits of his mission with their own eyes, all the allegations and accusations are falsified before everyone and in place of allegations many good titles take its place and they are the embodiments of greatness, spirituality and power. And if the circumstances are opposed to this the allegations remain in the minds of some people for a long time. And they prove effective on many people.

The same thing is applicable to the Prophet of Islam (S). He began a progressive program and with many brilliant laws he stepped into the field of contest which were beneficial for the common people but were going against the ruling class.

He used to inform of his future successes in his programs and in the light of divine help and the steadfastness of his companions he surmounted his difficulties. At last the capital of polytheism and the center of false accusations fell into the hands of the Muslims. And Mecca was conquered in the form of a manifest victory.

This success which became the cause that Quraysh with all their power should come under the rule and control of Islam. It also had another great consequence in its fold and it was that when this valiant warrior earned victory in this battle and the people saw the best result of his efforts clearly and he took his spiritual mission to completion, in the light of this success the falsehood mongers and allegation makers were rendered speechless.

They could not call him mad and insane or magician and soothsayer in face of his obvious achievements. Because anyone having such spiritual or mental defects could not create such a revolution.

Therefore in the ayat mentioned above “Zanb” are those same false allegations which were present in the minds of the simplistic people of Mecca. And this success had false accusations and these allegations were removed from the personality of this savior. Obviously if the same conditions had continued that were before the conquest of Mecca and the Holy Prophet (S) had not been able to achieve success in the contest, the allegations would have remained as they were.

This explanation is testified by two things:

1. The ayat clearly says that We have created the conquest of Mecca so that your sins may be forgiven due to it.

2. If the forgiveness of sins is the invalidation of false allegations and accusations as we have explained in detail above, that the relation between the conquest of Mecca and the forgiveness of sins is proved valid. Because this conquest had sealed the tongues of people regarding the repetitions of allegations and then no question remained for anyone to accuse the Holy Prophet (S), and if they had implied legal mistakes and disobedience then how can they be forgiven by military conquest and apparent victory, but it is seeking of forgiveness and repenting.

3. The clear meaning of the ayat is that this victory has brought into existence causes for the forgiveness of the past and future sins and this sentence could bear these meanings only. That due to this victory all the allegations and accusations that had been heaped were now rendered ineffective. But if you take it in the sense of actual sins you cannot explain how the future sins could be forgiven in advance.